All kinds of people and organizations, from media to scientists, have been pushing back against the idea, popular among the Rush Limbaugh set, that recent bitingly cold weather disproves global warming. Rather, they say, global warming actually causes this extreme weather, by making the polar air mass more unstable. That's now the official line of the White House, which is embarking on a bit of a media blitz to deny the notion that one cold snap means climate change is a lie. In a video released Wednesday, President Obama's science and technology advisor, Dr. John Holdren, made the two-minute case....

Californiaâ€™s ludicrously ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has been besieged with all kinds of problems from almost the moment of its official conception, but let that not restrain California Democrats from doubling down on what they seem to view as their iliadic quest to make high-speed rail happen. Back in August, a judge declared that the project had already violated the 2008 ballot initiative that first authorized the $10 billion in bonds for the 500-mile train, because the state didnâ€™t actually having funding sources on the books for the $31 billion required...

The final costs of settling civil rights lawsuits brought by hundreds of people who were swept up in mass arrests during the 2004 Republican National Convention — many of whom were breaking no laws whatsoever — are likely to be well over $35 million. That would make the convention lawsuits among the costliest ever defended by New York City. In a decade of litigation led by the city’s former chief lawyer, Michael A. Cardozo, the Bloomberg administration proved unable to justify the mass arrests made during the last days of August 2004, but was successful in shrouding much of the...

More than 100 retired New York City cops, firefighters and correction officers were charged today with falsely claiming to be suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks, New York prosecutors said today. The alleged scam won awards up to $500,000 for the uniformed personnel and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, according to the indictment. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the suspects "cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of Sept 11th... dishonoring the first responders." Police Commissioner William Bratton said, "The retired members of the NYP indicted in this case have...

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced recently that he’d make banning the city’s horse-drawn carriages his first priority, a lot of people were left asking, “Really?” Could This be the Reason De Blasio Decided to Go After Horse Carriages in NYC? Indeed, for all the problems de Blasio claims the city struggles with, it would seem horse-drawn carriages would take a back seat. But they haven’t and he’s pursuing the ban. And there may be a reason why: A major de Blasio campaign donor and real-estate executive may be tied up in the drive to banish the...

Despite 65MPH being popular among many motorists and the trucking industry, the proposal to lower speed limits along major highways in NY may move in the legislature because of ardent support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and key members of the State Senate.

Back from his $4 million Hawaii vacation, President Barack Obama seems poised to sound the populist trumpet in an effort to turn the page on 2013’s disastrous Obamacare rollout. Many pundits are speculating that Obama, seeing the popularity of liberal populists like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, will use the current debate over unemployment insurance to engage in more divisive rhetoric: The Obama administration has set the stage for a push that could rekindle cries of class warfare -- calling for renewed long-term unemployment benefits, a minimum wage increase and a campaign against what Democrats call "income inequality." Ahead...

The crisis surrounding the case of the Indian consular official whose arrest last month sent U.S.-India relations into a tailspin was at least temporarily cooled late Monday when the diplomat agreed to waive a Jan. 13 deadline to indict her. In a request to federal court in New York, the attorney for Devyani Khobragade, charged last month with submitting fraudulent visa documents for her Indian maid, said that Â“significant communications .â€‰.â€‰. between the prosecution and the defense and amongst other government officialsÂ” could be undermined if the indictment threshold is crossed.

FDNY at the scene, report of explosions and fire at the TIME building in Manhattan. Shep has the updates @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/vy6UVR10AU Update: Fox producer says there's smoke coming out of the manhole outside the TIME building in Manhattan.

New York's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, in his inaugural speech, denounced people "on the far right" who "continue to preach the virtue of trickle-down economics." According to Mayor de Blasio, "They believe that the way to move forward is to give more to the most fortunate, and that somehow the benefits will work their way down to everyone else." If there is ever a contest for the biggest lie in politics, this one should be a top contender. While there have been all too many lies told in politics, most have some little tiny fraction of truth in them,...

There are times when you really want to punch someone in the face. I had one of those moments the other day when I heard Bill Clinton yapping at the De Blasio inaugural. Clinton reminded me of why he is a good politician and why I despise him with all my being. The De Blasio inaugural was remarkable for a number of things, New York City being a fecal, racist, third world plantation not the least among them. The speakers took turns pounding on Bloomberg as though New York City was Detroit: Mayor de Blasio’s inaugural guests took turns beating...

Mayor Bill de Blasio's promise to ban New York City's iconic horse-drawn carriages could backfire, exposing what the newly-elected mayor's critics suggest is a corruption scandal masquerading as an animal-rights crusade. Defenders of the carriage industry point to a real-estate executive who is one of de Blasio's major campaign donors as the driving force behind the effort to abolish the carriages. (snip) The bad guy in this drama, according to the carriage drivers, is Steve Nislick, chief executive officer of a New Jersey-based real-estate development company, Edison Properties. The company "employs legions of lobbyists to influence city decisions on real...

Now he wants to legalize pot. The man who will send you to jail for having eight bullets in your gun is now paving the way for you to get stoned. Andrew Cuomo, proof that the apple, in fact, can fall quite far from the tree. As the first anniversary of his gun-banning Safe Act rolls around, the governor of New York is set to announce in his state of the state address that he is going to unilaterally, through administrative action, legalize medical marijuana. As he looks across the state, and chosen who he wants to stand for, he...

PARIS — It is difficult to go more than a day in France without hearing someone express the conviction that the greatest problem in the country is its ethnic minorities, that the presence of immigrants compromises the identity of France itself. This conviction is typically expressed without any acknowledgment of the country’s historical responsibility as a colonial power for the presence of former colonial subjects in metropolitan France, nor with any willingness to recognize that France will be ethnically diverse from here on out, and that it’s the responsibility of the French as much as of the immigrants to make...

It was only his fourth day on the job and already he’s breaking the law. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was filmed shoveling his sidewalk this week. The media loved it. He was shoveling his walk and throwing the snow in the street. He also was breaking the law. It is illegal to throw your snow in the street in New York City.

Let’s face it. Gun control is good business. Not only for the Bloomberg sycophants who prey off of the fearful (unarmed) masses, but for dealers, manufacturers, and purveyors of firearm accessories. And while Sturm Ruger & Co.’s stock price has shot up (see… guns are an investment, not an “obsession”) America has actually become safer. So, as it turns out, increased gun ownership is both an economic and security boost to the average American. (By the way: This article is dedicated to Samuel Colt.) A mere nine years ago – before the age of ObamaBloombergHickenlooper Inc. – there were nearly...

It’s not every new mayor who gets to be sworn in by a former president while a former first lady and secretary of state looks on. But New York’s Bill de Blasio is not just any rookie mayor and Bill and Hillary Clinton are not just any former Washington power couple. Mr. de Blasio is the most unapologetically leftist New York mayor in decades and a symbol of the recent ascendancy of the liberal populists in the Democratic Party. The Clintons are the wiliest political duo in modern U.S. history, out to rewrite the latter so as to ease Hillary’s...

On November 5th Breitbart News reported that Metcalf used his G&A column to argue that all constitutional rights have and need regulation, including 2nd Amendment rights. The outcry against Metcalf was immediate and his firing swift. On November 7th Breitbart News reported that Metcalf had been fired by G&A. According to NYT, Metcalf's life changed completely thereafter – his television show was ended, "gun companies... stopped flying him around the world," and they've also stopped sending him samples of the newest guns to review.

You know about Anthony Weiner. Who could forget Eliot Spitzer. But, did you know there was a slew of other scandals starring Democratic politicians this past year in the Empire State? Let's start in Manhattan, where New York Assemblyman Micah Z. Kellner is the latest Democrat to suffer the consequences of his inappropriate behavior. He was sanctioned this week after allegations he sexually harassed members of his staff. Kellner joins a Democratic assemblyman from the Buffalo area, Dennis H. Gabryszak, who last month was accused of making sexually explicit comments to several female aides. So far, six female staffers have...

Looking for advice on how to improve the NYPD’s ability to keep New Yorkers safe, incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio is turning to the experts in violent crime and criminal activity. . . Ex-convicts. And not the white collar Bernie Madoff convicts. De Blasio’s transition think tank (bankrolled by the liberal billionaire, George Soros) listened to the concerns of convicted criminals when it came to the NYPD’s policies and policing efforts. The message was pretty much what one would expect from convicted kidnappers, killers, thieves, and other NYC scum: “Get Soft on Crime.” According to the NY Post, “A group...